>>I made a rough calculation using statistics for 1-year interest, yearly inflation
and only 15% tax rate (doubtful if 1 year horizon qualifies for the lower 15% bracket)
and from starting from 2000 you end in 2010 with 96.7% of your purchasing power.
$ in the bank is perceived as safer, but it tends to erode. People can choose to put their $ elsewhere if they don't like that. IMHO people understand very well that some choices appreciate and some depreciate. IMHO this has nothing to do with fairness: people choose where they want to put their $ and if it involves a gain, IMHO it's fair for it to be taxed at the same rate- especially on capital gain that historically has multiplied wealth hugely and is increasingly inaccessible to Joe Average.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
